Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P FOR USE AS NAS

With what CPU, memory, HDDs, etc....Also, what OS (FreeNAS, for example)?

All is all, if you bundle this mobo with any modern CPU, it may actually be overkill, but will serve the need (more than) well.

It has 10 Sata 3Gbps ports on it, so I don't see how it wouldn't be great for a NAS.

If all you plan on doing is serving files to a handful of PCs, you could get a AMD Sempron 145 Sargas 2.8GHz single core processor and it would be more than sufficient. Or, if you can find older Regor chips for cheap you can get a dual core and do a bit more.

Find an old case someone is throwing away with a 200-300W PSU and buy some cheap RAM. Throw in a 8GB CF card with PATA adapter and you have a good low power boot drive for Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS, or Openfiler.

I built my own NAS system that has an Intel Atom D525 that has most of capabilities as the Thecus N5200XXX for $141.95. If I spend another $150 I can expand my build to cover hardware RAID 5/6 and store 8 HDDs which exceeds the Thecus. It may not look as pretty and it may use a little more power (my build draws ~40W idle), but it'll be cheaper in the long run and just as environmentally friendly since I used recycled parts.

Thanks all for the replies.

I'm new to the building of a NAS. As stated I was planning to purchase a Thecus N5200XXX but then this motherboard dropped into my lap so I figured why not us it plus it has 6gig worth of Kingston HYPERX DDR3 memory.

I would like to use:

3TB 3.5 Sata drives

FreeNAS (have to do more reading on this software) or Win7 64bit if recommend from forum post.

Can anyone recommend a small case that would allow plenty of 3.5 drives

CPU (I need to do some research, haven't been keeping up with AMD products)

I currently have a HP Mediasmart with 7.5TB which is almost filled with music, HD movies, movies, and other important data that I don't want to lose.

Also I would like to do some VMware VM on the NAS if possible. I just completed VMware training and need to lab work.

Sorry if I'm not being clear but this is a new journey for me so I don't know all the ends and outs but truly appreciate any help that can be provided.